IL15 Deficiency in Rats

NK cells are a major immune cell in the uterus during pregnancy. IL15 is required for the maturation of these cells, therefore a mutation in the IL15 gene results in a lack of NK cells. In this study, implantation sites were collected from gestational day 9.5 pregnant IL15 deficient or WT Sprague-Dawley Holtzman rats. RNA was collected, and a Clariom S microarray was performed to elucidate differences in gene expression at the developing placenta and uterus between mutants and WT dams. WT dams and IL15Δ/Δ dams were mated with a WT male. On GD 9.5 implantation sites (containing developing placenta and embryo) were collected and RNA extracted using a TRIzol-RNeasy column hybrid protocol including on-column DNase I digestion, and purified. Each sample represents RNA pooled from 3 implantation sites a single dam. Normalization and output file generation was performed with Affymetrix Gene Expression Console (Thermo) using the Robust Multi-Chip Analysis (RMA) algorithm [RMA-Gene-full].